in this issue:
hot button issues: BOOK / NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY / PETITION
abortion: BANNING ABORTION / TEXAS
adolescents: SEXUAL ACTIVITY
down syndrome: AFFIRMING LIFE
euthanasia: CALIFORNIA / ENGLAND / OHIO
infanticide: AUSTRALIA
in vitro fertilization: RISKS
politics: QUESTIONS FOR CANDIDATES
stem cell research / commentary: MEDIA ADDRESS ETHICS / PROFESSOR SHERLEY
stem cell research / ethical: CANCER / HEART
wisdom: MARK PICKUP
zinger: PELOSI
reflection for prayer: MANKIND
hot button issues
BOOK: Judie Brown’s new book provides an eye-opening account of the connections between dissent and current trends among many Catholics today. The numbers are startling and the result has been millions of preborn children lost under the mantra of “choice.” For details, see “Saving Those Damned Catholics.”
NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: April 24 is the date for ALL’s fifth annual National Pro-life T-shirt Day. The day provides an opportunity for all pro-life people, especially students, to make a public stand on behalf of preborn children. The official shirt of ALL’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is available online. Additional information is available at www.NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com.
PETITION: An American Life League petition asks Catholic bishops to address the scandal caused by political figures who claim the Catholic faith but support abortion. Church law states that those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.” All Catholics are invited to sign the petition that will be delivered to U.S. bishops in June.
abortion
BANNING ABORTION: In the February edition of the ABA Journal, Clarke Forsythe of Americans United for Life is reported to have written that state efforts to ban abortion “divide friendly forces, waste precious resources and undermine the credibility and political survival of pro-life legislators in the states that consider them.”
(Reading: “ABA Journal on total bans on abortion,” Reproductive Rights Prof Blog, 2/13/07; “A pro-life mistake,” National Review Online, 12/16/05)
TEXAS: The Texas Catholic Conference sent volunteers in turquoise shirts to the state capitol to give lawmakers angel food cakes and a list of legislative priorities. At the top of that list: abolish abortion in Texas.
(Reading: “States fund antiabortion advice,” Los Angeles Times, 2/11/07)
adolescents
SEXUAL ACTIVITY: Researchers at the University of California San Francisco found that up to one-half of the sexually active teenagers in their study said they’d ever felt “used, guilty or regretful after having sex.” The research emphasizes the negative consequences of adolescent involvement in sex.
(Reading: “Study: Sex of any kind can harm teens emotionally,” Reuters, 2/5/07)
down syndrome
AFFIRMING LIFE: Frank Boehm, M.D., examines the potential problems created by those who desire a “perfect child” based on his personal experience with his grandson and that little boy’s twin sister. He writes “As we enter a world in which more genetic information will be available for us to consider in selecting a ‘perfect’ child, I hope we have room in our world and hearts for those like Seth who are challenged and different, because challenged and different can still be perfect.”
(Reading: “Having a perfect child,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2/1/07)
euthanasia
CALIFORNIA: With the reintroduction of an assisted suicide bill, the place to go for pro-life resources is California Pro-life.
ENGLAND: A 30-year-old woman who has been given less than a year to live is campaigning to force doctors to increase her morphine so that she is in a coma-like state and at the same time refrain from giving her nutrition and hydration by tube. Lawyers for the woman have applied for a court order.
(Reading: “Dying is my human right, says woman bidding to end her life,” The Scotsman, 2/13/07)
OHIO: Prosecutors in Ohio’s largest county say they will not block the local organ bank if it wants to remove organs from people who are not yet brain dead.
(Reading: “Organ harvest begins before brain death,” Associated Press, 2/11/07)
infanticide
AUSTRALIA: A new research study indicates that doctors who fear their own deaths are more likely to hasten the death of terminally ill babies.
(Reading: “Doctors scared of death ‘help babies die,'” AAP, 2/6/07)
in vitro fertilization
RISKS: A Canadian study involving 61,000 births has found the risks of certain defects were startlingly higher for babies born after reproductive technology was used.
(Reading: “Fertility treatments increase birth defects, study says,” Associated Press, 2/9/07)
politics
QUESTIONS FOR CANDIDATES: The Eagle Forum has published an excellent set of questions to ask candidates.
(Reading: “Questions to ask candidates,” Phyllis Schlafly Report, 1/07)
stem cell research / commentary
MEDIA ADDRESS ETHICS: Michael Fumento opines that while the most successful stem cell research occurs using stem cells from cord blood, bone marrow and the line, such miracles remain a “state secret.”
(Reading: “Code of silence,” Daily Standard, 2/8/07; “Stem-cell researchers look beyond the embryo,” Washington Times, 2/11/07)
PROFESSOR SHERLEY: Fred Lucas writes that the hunger strike researcher James Sherley is waging, based on Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s refusal to grant him tenure, is causing a controversy regarding whether or not MIT actually allows scientific debate on questions as controversial as the unethical nature of embryonic stem cell research.
(Reading: “MIT case sparks row over race, stem cells and academic freedom,” Cybercast News Service, 2/13/07)
stem cell research / ethical
CANCER: Johns Hopkins researchers are looking into the use of adult blood-forming stem cells as potentially capable of treating cancer and bone marrow disease.
(Reading: “Scientists discover master switches for adult blood stem cells,” Medical Science News, 2/8/07)
HEART: In Florida, doctors are taking a person’s own stem cells and injecting them into the heart to see if the damaged heart will repair itself. A second study suggests that heart failure patients may be successfully treated with stem cells taken from their fat tissue.
(Reading: “Chart your heart: stem cells fix damaged heart,” First Coast News, 2/7/07; “World’s first adult stem cell study using patient’s own fat tissue,” Science Daily, 2/7/07)
wisdom
MARK PICKUP: Mark has a seriously debilitating case of multiple sclerosis; he suffers a great deal and yet Mark’s blog is a source of constant inspiration, including the following: “These are increasingly desperate times for me. I need to cling to God’s promise not to leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). I must cling to the constancy of God.”
zinger
PELOSI: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “My parents did not raise me to be speaker of the House. They raised me to be holy. They raised me to do the right thing. They raised me to recognize that we have a responsibility to people in need.”
COMMENT: That is unless those needy people live in the womb.
(Reading: “All signs point to home,” Baltimore Sun, 1/6/07)
reflection for prayer
MANKIND: From St. Faustina Kowalska: “O Jesus, make the fount of your mercy gush forth more abundantly, for mankind is seriously ill and thus has more need than ever of your compassion.”
(Reading: “Divine Mercy in My Soul,” Notebook II, page 2)